Trotter says a five-yacht
event like the one he arranged would start around $300,000 for the week
and that the uniqueness of it is exactly what companies are willing to
pay for. It makes even the busiest high-level clients not only want to
attend, but to keep coming back year after year. “They really want
to be there,” Trotter says. “This is invitation-only, and there
is a business aspect to it. You have to be good enough to go.”

One of the yachts that
Trotter is using for this winter’s event is the 138-foot Blue Harem,
a popular charter boat with a reputation for throwing great parties. The
client specifically asked for a yacht that could handle a wrap-up gala,
and in most cases, that means a motoryacht.

“A lot of them
have nice dining saloons where you can spread out and have good meetings
as well as corporate cocktail parties,” says Bonnie Mims, charter
fleet manager at Koch, Newton & Partners, which coordinates Blue Harem’s
schedule. “The sailboats, while they’re beautiful, lack the
exterior entertaining areas that may be good for corporate charters—especially
if you’ve got three or four boats chartering together, you’ve
got eight to ten people per boat, so that’s 40 or 50 people for one
evening gathering.”

Mims says the crew aboard
Blue Harem is also a good example of what corporate clients should seek
out. “Capt. Carl [Zanziboni] is flexible,” she says. “He
works well with people and with large groups of people. He makes things
happen in an effortless way. Then it’s cleaned up, and you don’t
even know what happened.” Indeed, a theme party thrown aboard Blue
Harem at last year’s charter-yacht show in Antigua drew dozens upon
dozens of attendees, all given feather boas, colorful masks, and strings
of pearls to wear. The excitement raged late into the night, but early
the following morning, the boat was in tiptop shape.

Of course, a corporate
charter can be done with far less fanfare aboard smaller, less-expensive
yachts. “Midrange, even if a company wanted to treat their sales
managers to something, it’s out there,” McLaughlin says.

That type of charter
event can be fun, for sure, but it definitely won’t send the same
message as a week aboard a fleet of private luxury yachts in paradise.
And at the end of the day, isn’t the impression a corporate getaway
makes what really matters? No good businessman wants his guests feeling
like they’re on a “nametag tour.” People should be eager
to come back next year. They should leave thinking, “How can I stay
on that guy’s good side in case he does this again?”

“You can’t
buy that with ads or over the telephone,” Trotter says. “You
have to really build these personal relationships in business with the
right people. And that’s what these guys who are successful are able
to do.”